Media Release: The BRIT Awards 2015 with MasterCard

• Celebrates biggest digital show to date with record breaking 7.8million global tweets on the night

• Most Tweeted-about (non sport) TV show in the UK

• More than 24 million people watched BRITs content on the official YouTube channel

• Terrestrial viewing figures up from 2014 with average of 5.8 million viewers – rising to 6.8 million at peak

• Music sales boosted by outstanding BRITs performances with this week’s Official Album Charts Top five all BRITs performers and winners

THE BRIT Awards 2015 with MasterCard today celebrates its biggest digital show to date with its official social media channels demonstrating a huge increase in numbers compared to 2014.

An incredible 7.8m global tweets were posted about the show on the night, compared to 4m in 2014, a 95 per cent increase. Madonna, Kanye West, One Direction, Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran were the most talked about topics of the night on Twitter, along with the live social vote for British Artist Video of the Year.

This category was determined by a live social vote during the show for the second consecutive year, and saw five million uses of the hashtags associated with the vote, a 150 per cent increase from last year’s figure of two million. The voting process for the award began at Nominations in January with ten acts reduced to five for show night.

This longer voting process led to over 1.28m users and 3.6m page views on the BRITs website in this time, up on the comparative period in 2014. The BRIT Awards 2015 trended on Twitter from 2pm GMT on 25 February for over 24 hours.

More than 24m people have watched BRITs content on the official BRITs YouTube channel over the past 90 days (combination of live views and VODs), with views peaking during the show when One Direction were announced as British Artist Video of the Year winner. Globally, the live show was most popular in the US, followed by Poland, Brazil, Germany and Mexico.

Official BRIT Awards social platform global statistics: (as of 27 February 2015)

* Reach of 15m on The BRIT Awards Facebook page

* 1.53m followers across all social channels

* 30 per cent increase in followers across all key platforms since November 2014

* 5m uses of the hashtag associated with the social vote for British Artist Video of the Year– won by One Direction

* 11.1m uses of the ten hashtags for the social vote in the knockout phase (15th January-20th February)

* The @BRITaward Twitter account added 150K followers from launch show to today (up 20% growth compared to the same period last year)

* More than 24m have watched BRITs content on the official YouTube channel over last 90 days

* 8.2m views on the BRIT Awards YouTube channel between 25 February – 1 March 2015 including 2.2m views so far of Taylor Swift’s opening performance of ‘Blank Space’

Terrestrial TV audiences are also part of the success story for 2015: viewing on the night peaked at 6.8 million, and an average of 5.8 million viewers tuned in to ITV to watch Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Paloma Faith and Royal Blood take home the big awards during the show.

Chair of the BRITs Committee, Max Lousada said: “The audience engaging with this year’s BRITs show is bigger than ever, which is a great reflection of the excitement surrounding British music right now as well as the popularity of the artists who featured on the night.

“The fact that so many of them went on to occupy top spots in the charts this week as well as creating such widespread commentary and conversation shows the BRITs continues to be the UK’s most important showcase for outstanding music talent and an important fixture in the global entertainment calendar.”

Chief executive of the BPI and BRIT Awards, Geoff Taylor, added: “This year’s spectacular BRITs not only captured the palpable mood of optimism surrounding British music following an exceptional 12 months by our home-grown talent, it also gave more fans here and around the world the chance to engage with the awards than ever before.

“At peak 6.8 million viewers tuned in to ITV to enjoy the live performances, while a staggering 7.8 million tweets were posted – almost double year on year – helping to make the BRIT Awards 2015 the biggest digital show ever.”

In the first week to reflect audio streaming of albums in The Official Albums Chart, this week’s Top Five albums are all from BRITs performers and winners, with British Breakthrough Artist and BRITs Global Success recipient Sam Smith claiming the historic top spot of the album chart with sales and streams of ‘In The Lonely Hour’ up 121 per cent.

British Male Solo Artist, Ed Sheeran’s second album ‘X’ – which won MasterCard British Album of the Year – is at No. 2, up 181 per cent on last week.

British Group winner, Royal Blood, and British Female Solo Artist, Paloma Faith, both made tremendous gains following the BRITs; Royal Blood’s self-titled album saw a 451 per cent increase in demand across the week – moving up 15 places to No.3 in the Official Albums Chart in the process, while Paloma’s ‘A Perfect Contradiction’ leapt from No. 33 to No. 8 in the Official Albums Chart following a similarly dramatic 368 per cent rise.

Head of Brand, Digital, Sponsorship and Music Marketing at MasterCard, Shaun Springer: “As we entered our 17th year as a BPI partner, it is safe to say that The 2015 BRITS were bigger and better than ever before and the increase in social conversation and terrestrial viewing figures is testament to this. The MasterCard #PricelessSurprises campaign which launched in December has supported The BRIT Awards right up to the night itself.

“Through the promise of exclusive content and future opportunities for cardholders after The BRITs, we worked closely with The BPI to keep music fans engaged and get them closer to the artists they love. We look forward to continuing our partnership with the flagship music event in the UK for many years to come, and we urge you to stay tuned to the MasterCard Music programme and the exciting activity to come throughout this year too on the UK Priceless Surprises website.”

Azi Eftekhari, head of EMEA music partner management, Google Play: “We are delighted to be the official audio and streaming partner of the BRITs 2015, and proud to be supporting War Child and The BRIT Trust. Numbers are still growing, but already we can see that the final figure will be the largest amount ever raised from BRITs downloads, so thank you to the amazing artists and our Google Play users for making it happen.”

Director of Music, Marketing and Communications of War Child, Ben Knowles: “In 2015 Passport Back To The Bars, the BRITs Week shows, the Google Play BRITs tracks and the War Child/ O2 annual BRITs Concert has made this the most remarkable year for our relationship with the BRIT Awards and another display of the commitment of British music to help the most vulnerable young people in the world’s most dangerous places. Eleven great shows in nine days made huge noise for both the BRITs and War Child.

“We are very grateful to all the acts, the managers, the labels and people behind the scenes who help us make it all possible – with special thanks to Max Lousada and Maggie Crowe for their dedication and commitment. It’s often easy to forget how charity lies at the heart of the BRIT Awards, but the tens of thousands of children’s lives who will be saved and changed due to the 2015 BRITs will never forget.”

The BRIT (British Record Industry Trust) Awards is organised by the BPI – the British recorded music industry association – which has over 400 record company members large and small who between them account for in excess of 90 per cent of UK recorded music sales.

The BRIT Awards 2015 with MasterCard will be the 35th BRIT Awards, which has raised more than £15.8m for The BRIT Trust charity, whose main beneficiaries are the BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology www.brit.croydon.sch.uk Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy www.nordoff-robbins.org.uk and other selected charities which match the mission criteria.

Over 8,000 young people have been given free education and the opportunity to enter the BRIT School since its opening in 1991 and more than 10,000 children and adults have been helped by the extraordinary music therapy work carried out by Nordoff-Robbins.

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About ITV PLC

ITV is the largest commercial television network in the UK. It is the home of popular television from the biggest entertainment events, to original drama, major sport, landmark factual series and independent news. It operates a family of channels including ITV, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4, ITVBe and CITV, which are broadcast free-to-air, as well as the pay channel ITV Encore. ITV is also focused on delivering its programming across multiple platforms including itv.com, mobile devices, video on demand and third party platforms. ITV Studios produces and sells programmes and formats in the UK and worldwide, and comprises of ITV’s UK and international production operations, international distribution, home entertainment, publishing, merchandising and licensing.